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This Morning Doctor on diabetes

  • Thread starter Thread starter Luna21
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Luna21

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I just had to comment on the 'This Morning' discussion with Dr Chris just now.

For a Doctor to make claims which he did on live TV, claiming that all Diabetics are diabetic due to their unhealthy lifestyles and being overweight and lazy, and then only when nudged by Philip Schofield to differentiate between the Types of Diabetes is disgraceful!

How does he know what has caused diabetes in many type 2's, and to brand all of us like that, is hardly likely to elicit any sympathy for those of us struggling with this condition. Even the medical jury is out on the definitive reasons why some people get diabetes, even thin, active, people and others do not.

Yes, some diabetes sufferers are overweight and don't eat healthily, or exercise, but not everyone falls into this category and it is wrong to label us all as such, and he was again pulled up by Philip yet again, with the way he described diabetes complications. Philip had to point out that not all diabetics will get those complications that Dr Steele was reeling off!

A totally disgraceful interview, very poorly researched, and will not make diabetes any easier for those of us who have to live with it, as he has just branded us all fat, lazy and sitting on a sofa stuffing our faces, rather than offering help and good advice.

I really feel like complaining to ITV.
 
I think people should complain. The very fact that Dr Chris is a well respected and well known doctor will have been seen as true to most viewers of This Morning.
I guess it's similar to assuming people who get lung cancer are all smokers. A lot are but many are not. Bit of a harsh analogy but same mindset. Truth is though, many adult diabetes does appear to be related to lifestyle. Please note I said many, not all. There are many reasons as to why certain people become diabetic. Not all are understood. Doctors like this though certainly don't help. There is research now that suggest weight gain in many could be as a result of becoming diabetic, not the other way around.


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
 
Totally agree with your comments. Yes we all have to be aware that lifestyle can be a huge factor in diabetes but it's nit the only one, and that interview did not give a balanced view.

Dr Chris Steele seemed totally vehement in that interview and determined to set the 'blame' on diabetics. It shouldn't be a blame game, but one of putting out good advice and information.

I have complained to ITV too.
 
Could this be the same Dr Chris who suffers from coeliac and demands gluten-free signs on products? Perhaps if he develops diabetes himself he might start to think differently...
 
JudeK said:
Halle Berry is type 2 and there is no way she is unhealthy!

Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
Click to expand...

Saw a magazine article on her and gary barlow they have their own chefs !
All their meals are prepared to their individual needs and taste moods .

Will do the lottery AGAIN this weekend - then I may be able to afford my own
personal chef . [ wish and dream on Anna ]
 
anna29 said:
Will do the lottery AGAIN this weekend - then I may be able to afford my own
personal chef . [ wish and dream on Anna ]
Click to expand...

I have a team of personal chefs
My wife & I 8) 8) 8)
 
Its always very disappointing and worrying when professionals -trusted professionals - seem not to have checked their facts
its highly UNprofessional in fact bot that the good doctor should have been so lax both as a GP and a TV presenter.

I didn't see the interview but Philip Schofield appears to have had more of a grip on the situation.

I wonder if Dr Chris is a little out of touch these days? I always worry that now that GPs see fewer diabetic patients they won't keep up to speed with the condition. This doesn't apply to all of course.

I am surprised that the researchers didn't think to run this past DUK. Maybe a spokesperson from DUK will , retrospectively ,correct the misinformation..
 
I've emailed them too to complain about the lack of any scientific balance / rogour and the dangers of such " simplistic nonsense"
 
I'm the personal chef around here. I prepare meals for myself [low carbing GENETIC T2 and husband T1 with multiple complications including kidney failure]
In addition there are now a few doctors who think obesity is a SYMPTOM of T2 rather than the cause.
Hana
 
Not seen This Morning since Judy & Richard presented the show, always thought of Dr Chris Steele to be very knowledgeable back then and this seems uncharacteristic of him, I wonder if This Morning will respond to the e-mails sent today by disgruntled viewers and offer an explanation or apology tomorrow morning.
 
This is the complaint I sent


I would like to complain about dr chriss steeel . His comments this morning on the subject or not only highly offencive but also controversial . The ture cause of type 2 is not only still up in the air but the traditional views are beeing challenged . Yes a lot of type 2s are over weight but it is now being contended that in the early stages of type 2 waight can be gained as because you body cant use the glucose in the body and it is telling your brakn you are hungry and the food it is craving is high carb or sugary . Which then raises your bgs and then the insulin raises aswell .as your body cant use properly either the glucose or insulin the insulin does the only other thing it can do (some dr beleive this is a bodys defence mechanisum) which turns the  excess glucose into fat and the cycle continue as your body is still hungery . Your imagin being perpetually hungry I can assure you it is no fun. 18 months ago I was 14 st ate relitivly healthy and swam 2/3 to 1 mile (40 to 64 lengths)  3 to 5 x per week first off I started feeling fitigued and then I started craving food I knew was bad for me but when you craving somthing bady you end up giving in and then ofcourse at that piont having it does help a bit with energy . The problem is diabetes is progressive and prety soon the amount of sugery food need to give boost is larger even to the piont it prety much stops working but you have already got yourself into a way of living I suppose very simular to drug addiction.  I went from 14 st 3 lb christmass before last to arround 21 st this christmass . I had given up swimming july last year because I was just to tiered . It happened so slowley I didnt realy realise what was happening I thought to be honest it was depression . It was only when things came to a head 2 months ago that I found out what it was . I had tryed doing somthing about it several times when it was happening but not knowing I was eating the wrong things eg boild potato's salad, pasta salad, boildrice with what I was eating . I cult out chips but to be fair untill last autumn I never realy ate that many chips. Id have sandwiches instead of a main meal .I only ate brow bread the kind with bits in . Id eat things like pita breadwith baked beans or couscous salad . All of which would normally be relativly healty but for a diabetic especially one who dosnt know they are it just makes you feel worse because they are full of carbs. On the run up to being diagnosed I lost 2 1/2 st with out knowing how and since diagnosis I have lost nearly another stone. But with that much insulin in your system its hard . I have also found out since being diagnosed that because of how long i have had it before being diagnosed it has caused kidney dammage and kidney disease. Yes I am now over weight but I am now exerciseing again. Before it I was fit healthy and very muscular . I has distroyed my life and the last thing I need is some jumped up little sensationalist telling me and  the rest of the world what a usless **** I am. That its all my own fault and I deserve every thing that comes to me. because that is how the little **** came across. This is somthing I have to struggle with every day I dont see why I should have to struggle against public oppinion being poisond against us by someone just saying whatever he thinks will keep him in a job by upping ratings . You should be ashamed of yourselfs
 
Here's what I sent - got an automated response to say they'll respond within 5 days


For a gp to spout simplistic and incorrect information regarding a serious disease is disgraceful
Dr Steele began with the comment that diabetes is of course caused by obesity - implying this is some kind of universal truth rathercthan his own ( apparently ill informed) perception. As well as being pejorative to diabetics such as myself, the comment is scientifically and experientially flawed. There is considerable scientific debateabout the causative relationship between obesity and the metabolic changes that underpin Type 2 diabetes - ie to what extent the metabolic changes that are seen with diabetes are caused by or in themselves cause obesity. R Steele also conveniently forgot both that around 1/3 of T2 diabetics are not overweight and that there are several types of diabetes ( T 1, T1.5, T2, gestational etc)
I rarely watch ITV - this kind of simplistic nonsense is the main reason
 
What about sir Steve Redgrave, diagnosed in his 20's when he was at the peak of his career. My mum, grandma and uncle were all t2, my uncle died at 65 in a diabetic coma. I had an over-active thyroid aged 32 which is an endocrine problem and have been told that if you have one endocrine condition you're at increased risk of developing another ie diabetes. I also had pancreatitis due to gall stones and again was told this increased the chance of diabetes, so the writing was pretty much on the wall for me!
 
my husband is type 2 on insulin not fat or overweight , and has a very fit job always on the move , so I tend to disagree with this morning programme , until they are diabetic and go through and learn what its all about the they shouldn't comment
totally out of order
 
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